GOSPEL :: FAMILY :: MISSION
Visible things point to invisible things. The visible behaviors of your life point to the invisible desires of your heart. The visible actions of your lifestyle point to the invisible affections of your heart. The way you spend your money, the way you manage your wealth and the way you care for your physical possessions are all like visible plants that point to invisible desires. Visible things point to invisible things.
1 Timothy is written by a pastor and church planter named Paul. He wrote this letter to his young son in the faith named Timothy. Timothy is an elder or pastor at the church in Ephesus.
Paul’s encouragement to young pastor Timothy is to get the men praying everywhere. He’s encouraging them to lift up hands of praise and holiness instead of lifting up hands of anger, conflict and sin.
Spend some time praying according to the points below:
:: What has disrupted your practice of prayer this week? Spend some time confessing your struggle with sin, anger and conflict and ask the Lord to help you live in a peaceful, righteous posture of prayer.
:: Ask the Lord to move on the hearts of our church members and leaders to become people of prayer and the Word. When God’s Word is open he speaks and then in prayer we speak back to him.
:: Ask the Lord to help people in our GC’s, our Sunday gatherings, our leadership teams and our discipleship meetings to make prayer the priority of being together.
I have a habit of making the things I want into things I need which in turn make the things I need into things I don’t want.
The Christmas season is here! It’s a season of joy and celebration for some of us as we dream a little bit about the things we’ve always wanted. But it’s also a season of despair and sadness for some of us as we obsess over the things we’ve always wanted but never seem to get.
If you make it your goal to store up treasure in heaven then you will invest yourself in eternal things instead of rotten things.
Do you ever question your security or feel insecure or uncertain of your future? Do you ever feel afraid or anxious because you can’t predict the future of that relationship or the future of your educational dreams or the future of your financial stability or the future of your child’s walk with the Lord or your future with your current employer? None of us can predict or control what happens in the next moment.
It is the will of God that we give thanks in every circumstance we face. He calls us to be in a continual attitude of prayer and always be full of joy. This is his will. His desire for us. His command to us.
Do you feel worthless, or alone, or insecure, or uncertain, or useless or insignificant today? Let me encourage you. You are not worthless. You are not alone. You are not useless. You are not insignificant. Christ is your security. Christ is your certainty. And Christ gives you all the significance you could ever need. God says that in Christ you are treasured, secure and useful. God’s love, written in Christ’s blood, serves as the eviction notice to your anxiety.
Treasuring earthly things will make you sick because earthly belongings and earthly wealth are rotten things.
Whenever we hear that another shooter has killed people or another driver has driven his car into a crowd or another group of people has attacked another group of people or another marriage is falling apart or another friendship is on the rocks, we can begin to feel anxious. Anxiety is a lack of peace.
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